They were society women.* Their homes were palaces.

They had many homes scattered over the country, in the mountains, on lakes, and by the sea.

They were tended by armies of servants, and their social activities were bewildering.

They patronized the university and the churches, and the pastors especially bowed at their knees in meek subservience.** They were powers, these two women, what of the money that was theirs.

The power of subsidization of thought was theirs to a remarkable degree, as I was soon to learn under Ernest's tuition.
* SOCIETY is here used in a restricted sense, a common usage of the times to denote the gilded drones that did no labor, but only glutted themselves at the honey-vats of the workers.